Tag: reflection

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We are halfway through the Company Command Series and are taking a quick intermission this week from the series. We continue discussing company command next week with policy letters.

Army-Navy football; working with peers or bosses during joint service time as a field grade officer; popular Hollywood films like The Hunt for Red October, Master and Commander, and Top Gun. I can think of few other times the Navy really ever comes to my mind as an Army officer and leader. Especially for junior officers or enlisted Soldiers, we don’t tend to consider our Navy brothers and sisters in arms during our daily professional routines or even throughout most of our careers. It should be expected though; when was the last time any of us (outside of SOF) participated in a training or real-world mission with Navy personnel? Our branches serve two different purposes for our nation: an army brigade combat team of 4,000 Soldiers generally operates at the low tactical level of war during land operations, where a 135-man Navy submarine exists to achieve strategic level influence ensuring the freedom of the high seas. As the Department of Defense appears to be steering more towards ‘jointness’ or a joint team, the mission of the Army and the Navy illustrate the inevitable challenges that lie ahead. The Army’s relationship with the Air Force, for example, illustrates how easy this transition may be with joint basing; however, the Navy has been less than motivated to share its property with anyone else. I don’t need to concern myself with the Navy except the one day a year that we beat the hell out of Navy, right? Not quite. Continue reading → What Army Soldiers Can Learn From Navy Sailors

As a sophomore at West Point, my soon-to-be best friend handed me a copy of Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner, by Dean Karnazes. I couldn’t put that book down, finishing it in less than 24 hours. That’s when I became hooked on ultramarathon running. Since then, over the last nine years, I’ve completed over two dozen trail races from the marathon to 100 mile distance. Many ask me why I do this and I tend to simply respond with, “why not?” I recently read a blog post that posed the seemingly perfect answer to that question. It stated, “perhaps the genius of ultra-running is the supreme lack of utility. It makes no sense…”

This year, I have the good fortune of celebrating Christmas with my family at my sister’s house in Bremerton, WA. She is a Navy Lieutenant (O-3) assigned to an aircraft carrier at Naval Base Kitsap. On this Christmas day, we joined her on her carrier to receive a full tour and eat lunch on her ship’s mess deck; it was the best military meal I’ve ever received in my seven-year career. We met many of her Sailors, peers, and superior officers. Characterizing the experience as impressive is an understatement.

Beyond the incredible machinery and systems on that massive vessel, one of the most impressive aspects of my visit was being served Christmas dinner by the ship’s Captain (O-6), his wife and children, and the Command Master Chief (CMC, the ship’s senior enlisted leader). I was humbled to see these leaders not only taking time to spend the holiday with their Sailors, but also include their families. Furthermore, I’ve read multiple accounts today of battalion command teams replacing their Soldiers on duty, company command teams delivering stockings to barracks, and multiple echelons of leaders checking on their formations this holiday. Continue reading → A Christmas Reflection on Servant Leadership

Prior to taking command, I read a comment by an unknown Army field grade officer which argued that military leaders are in the business of organizational improvement; he called it the business of MakeSh*tBetter.com. We come in, make the organization better, and then we move on. His message resonated significantly with me and has become the bedrock principle of my leader philosophy.